posted on June 28, 2003 04:21:37 PM new
I am hearing that the sellers on ebay are at an all time high. More items are listed on ebay than ever before. Yet the quality of items are not there.
I do not sell on ebay very much, fees to high, I am on the buy side. I have bought successfully for 2 to 3 years on ebay picking up many bargins and then selling them on my web pages and other areas. Before that I sold on ebay quite often. I have noticed within the last year that I can not buy the collectables like I use to. They are just not being listed. The items listed are of such poor quality that they are not even worth browersing through. I have also notice that many more items are misrepresented than ever before. Is this a sign of the times? Is ebay boasting of their great number of listings yet deceiving the public of their quality? I think so.
When I inquire to the sellers, I use to buy from, why they are not listing on ebay anymore, I am usually answered with "the fees are too high". Nearly all of these sellers have quit listing on ebay for this reason. They tell me their sell through rate is so low that it is not worth their time. Such a shame.
This has led me to believe that ebay is undergoing a radical change. They seem to be more in competition with walmart.I feel like the ebay's management is responsible for this radical change than the down turn of the economy, because when or if the economy turns around ebay will still not be able to attrack the quality materal like it onced did.
Every post I have read of yours it is anti-ebay so why bother posting or buying or selling? Ebay is slow only in part because of the economy. The other part is that this is the slow season. I have not found their fees to be too high.
If you think the quality is so poor, than go elsewhere. Simple.
Cheryl
My religion is simple, my religion is kindness.
--Dalai Llama
posted on June 28, 2003 04:50:37 PM new
I sell high quality item with a price tag of $50.00 to $200.00. I can do as good on eBay as any other venue. If I went to a flea mkt I would have to pay $25.00 for a weekend. I would have to sell 3 to 5 items to make it worth while plus being out in the heat for 2 days. I can do as well with a 10 day auction & stay home.
posted on June 28, 2003 05:02:50 PM new
eBay has been a great venue for me. Sales have never been better and the sell through rate is very high. You just need to be selling the right items. My average cost per item is about $5 with an average sale price of $16 so I am very happy. I sell between 100 and 200 items per week and am only limited by the hours in the day.
posted on June 29, 2003 06:20:36 AM new
professional dealers who are facing slow or no sales at their brick and mortar stores try to sell on ebay,they list some nice items with bold letters etc and reserve ,so listing fee can be 5-10 dollars.
list 10-15 of them and you are looking at over 100 dollars listing fee.
ebay bidders these days dont bid too high,so reserves are not met and dealers have this listing fee to pay.
after a few months,they either have to give them away or stop listing.
dbest is correct,you see less genuine nice antiques on ebay as dealers cant get the price they want.
these dealers bot them at auction or private estate sale,they did not find them at attic or garage sales ,they cannot afford to give them away at cost or below cost ,and this is becoming a norm on ebay.
you almost have to steal that stuff to make money on ebay,if you steal ,your cost is zero.
posted on June 29, 2003 06:25:46 AM new
Stopwhining has a pt: Competition is coming from everywhere, even the brick&mortar stores that have a lot of inventory.
Think about the discount stores. They buy low, and whatever they don't move, probably ends up on Ebay; or the big grocery store that bought that Webber grill at the surplus store and it won't move. They go to Ebay. That's why when you search for items, you see name stores (Macy, Penny, Sears, Gap) on Ebay just like mom&pop.
But I agree with dbest; he's not whining. I think Ebay is overcrowded and sites like Ioffer know this.
Now the point has been made and should be made more -- what's going to happen when Half.com is merged with Ebay? I put most of my stuff on Half.com and it sells pretty good. I don't want to be 'forced' into an Ebay store/auction and pay the fees. With Half.com, like Ioffer, there's a straight middle man cut, and I like that.
posted on June 29, 2003 06:27:57 AM new
doom & gloom. Another name for dbest and noh2.
Sellers and Buyers have lives and with summer here sellers aren't listing because the buyers are on vacation. There is no reason to list if you are going to get only 1 bid so everyone waits until Septermber and then lists like crazy. What I sell it doesn't matter how many bids as long as I get one.
posted on June 29, 2003 06:34:41 AM new
I think dbest is just upset because the sellers that are on there now, learn about the items they are selling and the good ol' days of "stealing" out from underneath an unknowledgable seller are all but gone.
You still get one every now and then...
But looking at the source of this thread doubtful they would know it....
posted on June 29, 2003 06:54:07 AM new
this is my 8th year on ebay,and i have seen more than most of you.
many dealers whom i do not want to name,have private websites where they have high prices and they are clearing some of these items on ebay to get some cash ,they use a different email addr and they dont advertise their websites on ebay.
and they are not just usa dealers,they are european dealers as well.
professional dealers have to make their living selling their antiques and collectibles,it is not a hobby for them,they need some respectable margin to keep bills paid and restock.
i dont know what is going to happen to all the items on half.com,may be they will be converted to ebay stores and sellers pay 9.95 a month to list their books,dvd etc.
or they can go to amzn and list them there for free until they are sold.
there may be light at the end of the tunnel,i have seen some auctions which specialise in certain categories and are doing well,collecting a 15% premium from both buyer and seller.
as for IOFFER,no one wants to wait a few days to hear from the seller and go back to the site to find out what the seller counter offer is??
posted on June 29, 2003 07:01:11 AM new
I was driving south on I-280 the other day, looked in the lane next to me, and there was an old eWanted van.
You remember eWanted. That was the "reverse auction" site touted so highly during the Internet bubble. An idiot friend of mine was itching to buy a lot of it.
So now eWanted is iOffer. You can dress a bad idea up in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt but it's still a bad idea.
posted on June 29, 2003 08:54:20 AM new
(sanmar) You are so lucky to have to only pay $25.00 per weekend. and you say you have to fight the heat. Come out here to Arizona
for a summer of slowwwwwwwwwwwwww selling and high fees. I set-up at one for the biggest swapmeets in Arizona this weekend. They run 2 selling sessions per day and charge 2 selling fees per day plus a $2 per day to plug in to electric. Fees are $12.00 per session Temps. run 105 in the afternoon.
for one day I grossed $12.00 in sales paid out 26.00 in fees. and suffered all day from the heat. You are right listing on eBay in much nicer even with slow sales and high fees.
[ edited by NativeAmerican on Jun 29, 2003 08:55 AM ]
posted on June 29, 2003 09:00:37 AM new
sing with me "where have all the buyers gone" gone so far away, "where have all the buyers gone" gone and not coming back etc.......................
posted on June 29, 2003 09:09:26 AM new
how about buyers have turned sellers??
wish they have never bot on ebay,now that they have trunks full of junk to unload for less.
what do you think of those 2 million telemarketing persons who will soon be looking for job??
posted on June 29, 2003 09:17:16 AM new
no cant win! in the words of dbest..it is "where HAS all the buyers gone.."..i can't even stand reading the title of the topic on this one!
I don't bemoan the departure of other sellers! CIAO ~ good riddance etc. - leaves a bigger piece of the pie for those of us who are willing to stick it out through bad times and good...
as for sales now..IT'S SUMMER! Don't blame the political environment, blame mother nature..if you want good sales, sell to the people "down under" - everybody north of the equator is out golfing, swimming, gardening, biking, tanning, barbequeing NOT ebay surfing!
posted on June 29, 2003 09:24:17 AM new
some people here sound like those idiots who monitor the stock market on tv all day and sit there and make stupid statements like
" the stock market dropped a 100 points today because as we predicted the squirrel
farted in the tree .
posted on June 29, 2003 08:00:12 PM new
Sales are booming now that the total listing count has dropped below 9 million. Less listings = more sales, summer is almost better than winter for selling.
